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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25688782">sketched with love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/englishmuff/pseuds/englishmuff'>englishmuff</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Six - Marlow/Moss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, anna is an art major, anne is actually smart you cowards, aroace anna, bc im a sucker for alliteration and also projecting, i always write instead of sleeping tho, i dont draw, i dont know anyone elses major, its very obvious, mostly anna and parr centric, nonbinary parr, rated teen bc theres like 2 cuss words, sorry - Freeform, you will see in this that i am not an artist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:48:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,390</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25688782</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/englishmuff/pseuds/englishmuff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>cathy, while having a pretty rough day, decides to go over to anna's for a study sleepover. but they find something there that changes their perception of anna, and dont know what to do with it. <br/>oh no it sounds like they had shmexy times, they really didnt and its very fluffy, im just not the best at descriptions im so sorry</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>sketched with love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cathy was having a pretty rough day. They spilled their coffee all over their shirt in the morning, they had their least favorite class of the day first (calculus), and her creative writing teacher still hadn’t graded the short story they turned in a week ago. </p><p>They walked to their last class of the day (biology), their shirt, which luckily was black, was still very sticky, and they sighed. Waving half-heartedly at Anna as they sat next to her, and ignoring Anna’s confused look, they opened their laptop to start taking notes. </p><p>“Hey Cathy, do you have to work later today?”<br/>Well, there goes the hope that Anna would take the hint and leave them alone, just for today.</p><p>“Nope,” they replied, popping the ‘p’ in an attempt to hide a weak sigh. Anna however, lit up and went on.<br/>“Awesome! I was kind of hoping you could come to my apartment and we could study together? We could also make it a sleepover, if you’re okay with that?”</p><p>Cathy took one look at the hope in Anna’s eyes and caved. Maybe a study sleepover could brighten their mood?</p><p>“Yeah, that sounds like fun. I’ll head to my dorm and pick up some stuff real quick, and then I’ll head over.”</p><p>Anna smiled and nodded, just as their bio professor came in like he always did, yelling,<br/>“Boom shakalaka, everybody!”</p><p>Everyone turned to the front, and Cathy was already tuning him out, thinking about what clothes to pack for Anna’s apartment.</p><p>-----------------------------------------</p><p>Finally, class was over and Cathy convinced themself to be excited for the study sleepover. They were chatting with Anna on their way back to their dorm, when it started raining.</p><p>“Oh shit,” Anna said, as they both started running to get inside Cathy’s dorm building, “my hair!”<br/>Cathay playfully swatted Anna as soon as they got inside, huffing and puffing while saying,<br/>“Your hair will be fine, it always looks good!”</p><p>Anna seemed almost taken aback at the praise, and Cathy made a mental note to compliment her more often.<br/>“Okay, let me run up and get some things, and we can take my car, it’s right outside,” Cathy said, going up the stairs two at a time. </p><p>They eventually reached their floor and keyed themself into their room, quickly glancing around at the mess their room had become. If Catherine saw she’d have a fit, and that thought made Cathy almost giggle.</p><p>They hurried to stick some clothes in a bag, and went back down the stairs to see Anna painstakingly wringing out strands of hair.</p><p>“You know we’ll have to go back out to get to my car, right?”<br/>Anna looked up as Cathy reached the bottom of the stairs, and she sighed.<br/>“Yeah, but it gave me something to do while you took your sweet time,” she teased right back.</p><p>They both waited a couple seconds for a lull in the rain before Anna decided,<br/>“Fuck it, let’s go.”<br/>She grabbed Cathy’s hand and pulled them through the rain to Cathy’s car, where they both scrambled in, panting.</p><p>“A little warning would be nice next time?” Cathy said, after catching their breath. Anna only shrugged, a smirk growing on her face. Cathy rolled their eyes fondly and started driving,</p><p>------------------------------------</p><p>When they reached Anna’s apartment building, the sun was peeking through the rain clouds, and the rain had slowed down a bit.<br/>“Maybe we’ll see a rainbow,” Cathy and Anna both said at the same time, then laughing so hard as they came out of the car that some guy walking his dog gave them dirty looks.</p><p>They got into the apartment, smiles still on their faces, and Cathy took in Anna’s apartment. It wasn’t like she’d never seen it before, she’d actually been there many times because Anna was the only one in their friend group who had an actual apartment and not a dorm room, so parties were usually at Anna’s, but it still had been awhile since Cathy had been to her apartment.</p><p>It was small, very reminiscent of a hotel room, and the very small kitchen was being ransacked by Anna for some water, and Cathy walked over to the couch after assuring Anna that no, they did not need a drink, and really, just come sit down, they’re fine.</p><p>Sitting under the ace pride flag and the aro pride flag that were hanging up on the wall side by side, Anna started spreading her notes on the coffee table, and Cathy did the same, and they started going over the new concept their teacher had introduced that day.</p><p>Before long, it was dinner time, and Anna sent a quick text to the groupchat, asking if anyone wanted to come over for dinner. Catherine and Kat both had a lot of homework, but Anne and Jane both said they could come over, so as a break, Cathy helped make enough grilled cheeses for everyone. </p><p>When Anne got there, she wasted no time in plopping on the couch and looking over their notes, even though they knew she had already taken that class last year. Cathy half-expected Anne to have forgotten everything about cell walls, God knows they did even after going over the notes, but then, Anne waved them and Anna over.</p><p>“Just one thing, real quick, the proteins that make up the outer shell of a plant’s cell wall are peripheral membrane proteins, you gotta be more specific than just… transmembrane proteins.”</p><p>“Say that again,” Cathy said, “but slower. I really don’t understand this, so could you help us?”</p><p>Anne nodded, and at that moment, Jane arrived. They even didn’t get the chance to say hello before Jane rushed into the kitchen and turned the stove off. Seeing everyone standing up in confusion, Jane turned to them, sheepishly smiling, and said,<br/>“A grilled cheese was burning.”</p><p>-------------------------------------</p><p>After dinner, Jane and Anna both had to go and do their homework, so that left Anna and Cathy, and Anne’s promise that if they couldn’t understand anything, they could call her right up, because helping them with their class sounded a lot more fun than writing an essay.</p><p>They continued studying through the night with only 11 calls to Anne for help, and 3 calls to Anne just because they needed a quick break, and around 1 am, they decided to call it quits and head to bed. </p><p>At Cathy’s instistance, they would be sleeping on the couch, and Anna could sleep in her own bed. The argument only ended because Cathy had to get up early for an 8 o’clock class, and Anna wanted to sleep in.</p><p>-----------------------------------------</p><p>In the morning, when Cathy’s alarm woke them up, they were incredibly tempted to turn it off and roll over, before remembering they couldn’t roll over, or else they’d fall onto the floor. They laid in bed for a couple more seconds before forcing themself up, cursing under their breath the fact that 8 am classes existed.</p><p>They debated going back to their dorm to shower, but that would take extra driving time, and Anna specifically said last night that if they wanted to, they could use her shower. So, Cathy pulled all their stuff to Anna’s bathroom. </p><p>However, Anna must have forgotten to mention that she didn’t have a showerhead, so quick bath time it is, Cathy thought. </p><p>They got the water going, and soon had it incredibly hot, just the way they liked it. They took their glasses and clothes off and got in, already grabbing the body wash, but then a notepad? sketchbook? grabbed their attention. </p><p>They let their hands dry, then gently pulled the sketchbook (it said so on the front cover, they realized) to where they could see. A part of them knew that if Anna hadn’t shared whatever drawings were in here already, she probably wouldn’t be thrilled with Cathy going through it, but Cathy always had been annoyingly curious.</p><p>Inside were incredibly detailed drawings and sketches of… their friend group. Page after page of doodles of Kat and Anne twinning while wearing skirts, or a sketch of the time Catherine made a speech in front of the whole school, in front of a podium. </p><p>Drawings of Jane smiling, no doubt after making a horrible pun, and even pictures of Cathy, hunched over their laptop, or wearing a wide, tipsy smile at one of her parties.</p><p>Cathy was taken aback with the beauty, and the love that Anna obvious drew her friends with. They flipped through a couple more pages, and found more and more gorgeous drawings, Anne on the rare day where she has her hair down, Kat and Catherine singing together on karaoke night, joy and bliss clearly written on their faces through a few expert pencil strokes.</p><p>They kept looking at the beautiful artwork for several more minutes before realising, shit, they had class soon. They carefully set the notebook back on its ledge, and hurriedly finished washing, and after they got out and put their clothes on, they debated for a second taking pictures of a few drawings and seeing what the others would think, so they could together shower Anna in praise, like she deserved.</p><p>They knew Anna, in the end, wouldn’t mind if a few sketches got shared between friends, but ultimately, they decided to wait. They knew if Anna wanted to share, she probably would’ve already. </p><p>They took one last look at the sketchbook, then quietly closed the door, wrote a quick ‘thank you for letting me sleep on your couch and use your bathroom’ note, and headed to class.</p><p>----------------------------------------</p><p>Cathy never forgot about the sketches, but they got pushed to the back of their mind when finals week came around. They were fried, and thankfully, they had just finished their last exam. </p><p>They headed to their dorm, ready to sleep for a week and a half nonstop, when they were stopped by Kat and Catherine, who happened to be walking by.</p><p>“Hey Cath! You just finished your last final, yeah?” Kat asked, terrifyingly upbeat for the end of finals week, but then Cathy noticed the coffee cup in her hand, and knew Kat’s horrifying finals coffee order had enough caffeine to kill. In response, they just nodded, too done to be able to speak properly. </p><p>Catherine noticed, and said,<br/>“Here, we’ll walk with you to your dorm. We were wondering, would you be up for doing a quick secret santa? The limit is 10 dollars-”<br/>“Because we’re broke college students!”<br/>“Thank you Kat, because we’re broke college students. That sound good?”</p><p>Cathay mustered up their voice to say,<br/>“Yeah that sounds great. Can I sleep now?”<br/>Kat smirked, saying,<br/>“As soon as you pick a person from this hat!”</p><p>She pulled out a hat from seemingly nowhere and shook it around. Cathay sluggishly reached for a piece of paper from inside and when their fingers found one, they stuffed it into their coat pocket, waved, and stepped inside their dorm building, which they had somehow walked all the way to while talking, or rather, listening to Kat and Catherine.</p><p>When they got to their room, they fell right onto their bed and fell right asleep, shoes on and everything. It had been awhile since they had the time to sleep, and they were going to take as much as they could.</p><p>----------------------------------</p><p>The time rolled around for their friend group (the Queens, as they named themselves after a very fun night out that included Kat bringing everyone tiaras and them all getting very drunk) to have their secret santa. </p><p>Cathy definitely did not forget until the last minute, and they totally didn’t rush to 5 Below to get a gift for Jane. They went to 5 Below at a reasonable time before the party, and didn’t run around the store trying to find a yeti plushie and some mint m&amp;ms, not at all.</p><p>When they arrived at the party, which was at Anna’s house, Anne and Anna were already doing shots, Kat was chanting, “Shots! Shots! Shots!” and Catherine and Jane were having what looked like a christmas cookie decorating contest, except there was more frosting getting on each other than the cookies.</p><p>Cathy smiled at the sight, and set their gift down next to the others against a wall and decided to join the decorating contest. </p><p>Before long, things had kind of settled down, and it was gift time. Wiping a dot of frosting off their cheek, Cathy said,<br/>“I’ll go first! Jane, I had you, so here!”</p><p>They handed Jane the gift, and although they knew she’d love it, they were nervous as Jane moved the tissue paper out of the bag. Anne stole the tissue paper and put it on her head, making a kind of hat, and Jane gasped with excitement when she saw the yeti stuffed animal.</p><p>“Oh Cathy, I love him! His name will be Edward!”<br/>Everyone had a good laugh at the quick name choice, but Jane just shrugged, blushing. Jane also loved the m&amp;ms, and ate half the bag before the night was over.</p><p>Jane got Anne a cute new choker, Anne got Kat light up toilet bowl (“It comes in handy for 3 am pee breaks, trust me!”), Kat got Catherine a baking cookbook, and Catherine got Anna a new succulent.</p><p>Finally it was Cathy’s turn to receive a gift, and Anna pulled it out, and seemed… almost embarrassed? Cathy took the package, and opened it, pulling out a framed collage of some sketches of Cathy. They recognized the sketches as the ones from the bathtub, and they teared up a bit.</p><p>“Anna, these are gorgeous! Guys, look,” they said, showing everyone the sketches. They all oohed and aahed, marveling at Anna’s artwork. Kat summed the mood up best, saying, <br/>“Damn Anna, I knew you were an art major, but this is amazing!”</p><p>Anna blushed furiously, and her head was nearly level with her shoulders with how much she was curling inward, obviously not used to the praise. Cathy leaned forward and crushed Anna in a hug, whispering,<br/>“Thank you, this is the best gift ever,” into Anna’s ear.</p><p>From then on, they all made a point to build Anna up more. She had plenty of self confidence, but it really never helps to have some others give you some confidence too.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hey, thank you so much for reading!! in case you didnt know, 5 below is a store where everything is 5 dollars or less, and they have a bunch of handy dandy things like toys, candy, and shirts. also a yeti for jane bc have you seen rowan's design? its gorgeous!! anyway, thanks again for reading, maybe check me out on tumblr, @thatenglishmuff ? have an invigorating day!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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